Evaluating surface condition for airport pavement: A case study of Al-Najaf International Airport runway

The rapid growth in the demand for air travel can place significant stress on airfield pavements, necessitating careful planning, investment, and maintenance to ensure the continued safety and efficiency of airport operations. The Pavement Management Program (PMP) under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has adopted PCI-PAVEAIR as the structural integrity indicator and operational surface pavement condition. Based on that, PCI estimation will be beneficial in saving time during distress surveys. Hence, choosing the wrong sample size can be time and money- consuming. One of the most important airports (Al-Najaf International Airport in Iraq) was selected as a case study to achieve the study target. This airport has a vital location on the eastern side of Al-Najaf City. It acts as a transportation hub, for the area and serves as a vital entry point for pilgrims visiting the sacred city of Najaf. By analyzing the Al-Najaf airport runaways it was concluded that the overall PCI value for Al-Najaf airport runway using different sample numbers (16, 24, and 30) was similar and about 70. However, most of the PCI values were critical ranging from (55 to 75) which triggers Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) activities to be established in line with international practice. Hence, some sections have very low PCI values down to 39, which can necessitate more frequent rehabilitation or reconstruction efforts, which are both expensive and time-consuming. This required airport authorities to take corrective actions to meet compliance standards. It found that there are small effects related to the overall PCI value by altering the sample size unit in analyzing the performance of the AL-Najaf airport runway. However, using 10% of the total sample number size can be more helpful in selecting the correct measuring procedure than using (5%, and 8%) of the total sample number size. Hence, using 10% of the total sample number size can be more helpful in selecting the correct measuring procedure than using (5%, or 8%) of the total sample number size.